New Years 2023/24

 I'm never really sure how you label the new year: is it named for the last day of the old year (like you're celebrating New Year's Eve) or the first day of the new year? Anyway, its December 29th, 2023 and I'm thinking about 2024 and what lies ahead.  I'm so down right now. I just can't find the motivation and not sure I want to be around for next year or the one after that.  Its great having the kids home for the holiday and I enjoy their company, but for some reason, that's not enough.  I just feel it's all pointless... Need to regroup and find something to hang on to.  I have racing goals, like the Boston Marathon and Duathlon Nationals. But somehow those don't mean much now.  Will have to see if I feel different in the new year.  

Twenty One

Lance and Mikaely turned 21 last week... so hard to believe they are actualy adults! I know, I've had 4 years to accept that since they turned 18, but it's still so hard! We had a really fun weekend in Tampa, FL celebrating their 21st and it is only hitting me now that this is it: they are no longer "kids" in any real sense. They are adults with the ability to make their own decisions, control the course of their lives, and make all of the mistakes that we all make in this thing we call life. I'm so proud of the people they are: kind, considerate, smart, athletic, determined, and respectful! It just sucks though that life goes so fast, that you never really appreciate the moments and stages of life while you're actually living them, but only afterward. 

They are amazing people!

Chimarathon 2023

Was this #20? I'm really not sure. I can't find resutls for me past 1994 but I think this was 20??? It went "ok". I probably had too high of expectations, given earlier success this season in duathlons and some triathlons. Finished 7th in my age group. Given I was 3rd in 60-64 a few years ago, I thought that in 65-69 I had a real shot at a top 3 finish. But looking back, that race in 2021 was when international travel was still resticted due to Covid, so the competition was likely significantly reduced.

Of course, I've got lots of good excuses this year: COVID in late August with lingering cough, bike crash in mid Septermber, and slipped and fell on my back one week before the race on last run. But, I actually felt good in the days before the race and went into it thinking I had a shot. Oh well, maybe next year, as they say!

Looking back on Tri Season 2023

This was such a fun triathlon season.

Had my best swim in a tri in the last decade and actually kind'a enjoyed swimming (well, sort of). I really have to thank my coach, Liz Waterstraat for that!  She had me focus on the things I could change, like relaxing, swimming straight, sighting, etc and allowed me to ignore the things I couldn't control like my kick and low power.  Her advice to carefully check the swim course paid off because I was able to cut to the inside on a turn where many swimmers held the line of bouys.  My run was also really good at Tri Nationals. Now focusing on completing my 20th Chicago Marathon in just 4 weeks.

L & M Back at School

Both Lance and Mikaely made it back to school, but not without a few bumps along the way. Lance's car broke down in OH as he and Diana were driving it to school, and Mik got banged up in a scrimmage at the end of her first week of preseason. But both appear to be doing ok. Really misss them and its a very unsettled feeling without them home.

Summer Vaca 2023

We really wern't sure if we would get in a summer vaca this year becuase kids were so busy. Even when we did plan one around moving Lance back to school, Mik didn't want to go becuase it cut into her time with AJ before she goes back to school. I missed the first part oo. But in the end, we all enjoyed it and we had a blast! I met up with everyone in Buffalo, NY after thay moved Lance in and were on their way to Toronto. We stopped at Niagra Falls, then on to the National Bank Tennis Tournament where we got to see Carlos and many of the top 10 men in tennis. So exciting to see tennis at thie level up close! Some of the funniest things revolved around silly stuff like our "Canadians is players too" version of the goofy song "Girls is players too". I laughed so hard I cried!

Last Tri of 2023

This season was a blast! Really enjoyed giving nationals a try and felt very satisfied that I gave it my best. Way back in February I started training with Liz Waterstratt and was able to make some progress in my swimming. To be honest, it didn't make much of an impact on my swim time (maybe 30-60 seconds?), but it did make an impact on how I felt about the swim! In the earlier races (Steelhead inparticular), I was very psyched out about the swim, but then by the time Nationals rolled around, I felt more confident. I barely broke 30 minutes for the 1.5K swim in Miluwalkee and, while that's not very competivive, that's actually a little better than my 1.5 K swim times at other races in the last 5 years. Importantly, I was able to get out of the water at Nationals without feeling breathless and tired. Liz did an amazing job keeping me focused on what was important and pushed just enough that I never crossed over that line into over-training. I felt we had a good coach-athlete realtionship and got the most out the season becuase of it! Another fun thing this season was winning "Grand Master Duathlete of the Year". I got to go to the USA Tri awards ceremony two days before Nationals to receive the award! It was a Whos-Who of tri celebs! I was able to get a photo with Michellie Jones and she recalled me asking her to hold Mikaely Evans (see bottomm photo, named after Jones, but we spelled it phonetically). That was 20 years ago! So cool!

Steelhead Ironman 70.3 Triathlon

This past Sunday (6/25/23) was the Steelhead 70.3 race.  Very disappointed with my time, given it was more than 15 minutes slower than last year. And it wasn't just a bad performance in once area: each leg of the race and the transitions were all slower. 

What was so disappointing was that I trained much harder this year than last year, especially on the swim.  Nevertheless, I swam a minute slower, I biked 5 minutes slower and I ran 8 minutes slower. I can't attribute that to equipment or weather, neither was a  factor.  I'm left wondering what went so wrong.

One nice thing was that I bumped into an old friend, Glenn Rolbiecki. really nice guy and great triathlete who has been competing as long as I have.  He took this photo at the finish line. I love the photo because I have no other picture at a race where I'm smiling.  In all the race photos I'm grimacing! 

 

CA Spring Break 2023

 Some great memories of Spring Break in CA with Lance. Playing pool in the dingy honky tonk in Death Valley was the best!  Then waking up after sleeping in the car and eating bean burritos for breakfast. Death Valley was spectacular!  Monterey, CA was also pretty cool! Great trip! 

Summer 2023 Triathlons

 Really training hard so far this spring and early summer! Check out this graph from TrainingPeaks showing total calories burned per month! That's almost a 5% greater effort that any previous month!  Damn, no wonder I'm tired!  

May 25th, 2023- MWU Graduation

Today was our MWU DPT Graduation for the class that started June of 2020.  They called themselves the "COVID class" and it was tough getting to know them that first 6 months because we were online for much of the curriculum.  But in the end, this turned out to be one of the most fun and likeable classes. Students like O'Dell, Deena, Leo, Jason, Kat, and Courtney were fun and super nice. Then there were also students who overcame some personal struggles like Samir, Tyler and Ashley, but who did amazing in the end. Lots of other fun students like Rachel who invited me as a guest for their class' HIIT workout and Victor who unassumingly cruised through the curriculum at a high level, impressing everyone with his maturity and professionalism and never let on that he was an army vet paratrooper. These people all moved seamlessly from being students, to just being amazing people who I will miss.

Every year when Dave Johnson, the Bagpiper, begins to play on that crazy instrument, leading the graduates, a strange feeling comes over me. Its like I'm suddenly aware of time passing and that I'm taking too much for granted. My kids are getting older..., this will be the last time I'll likely see most of this PT class..., I'm getting older, and the world is changing. Graduations always have a slight bitter-sweet element, but every year it gets more bitter than sweet. I will miss this class. I will miss people who retire and people who pass away. I will miss Stuart's personality as he slips further and further away from us.  I fear for friends like Daryl and I worry that I have fewer and fewer people that I can call friends.          

 Almost my B-day, just 3 more days.  Hoping that this will be a break-through season and I can be really competitive in triathlons, for a change!  Here are my races so far:

1) Duathlon Nationals, April 20th

2) Steelhead 70.3 June 25th

3) Triathlon Nationals, August 6th.  

That last one is my A-race!  Fingers crossed.  Mad